The Choice is Final
by ticatoast
Summary: When you have a best friend, you make them a promise- Forever. Never failing the other, supporting the other always, loving them. Forever. But when you break that promise... Goodbye. A Whovergent story about Theta Sigma (10) and Koschei (The Master), and how they went from best-friends-forever to heartbreaking enemies.


The library was empty. Usual for a library, he supposed. If... it was in Dauntless. If even one of them wandered into one (if they even had one, which he was sure they didn't), they would probably just stare blankly at the pages until the brain command 'Leave' finally got to their feet, and they left. They did have to have some coordination to do the jumping thing they did with the trains though. That was interesting, and looked hard. He did know that people of all ages had died jumping the gap. Dauntless was supposed to be about bravery, not recklessness. But the brutes had probably forgotten the emotional part of their creed and only remembered the physical part. If they could even read the pact anymore. The skill probably long forgotten in the Dauntless compound.

He chuckled, sitting back. He would accuse them of not being able to read if Erudites didn't transfer there every year. Sigh. Why anyone would want to transfer there, let alone go through initiation (which was probably some physical thing) and become a member of the clan of apes was beyond him. But of course, his best friend would probably be able to find something good in them, the damn ever-polite child. The 'good-finder' always saw the good in everyone, no matter what they did wrong. Ugh. It really ticked him off sometimes.

Staring blankly at the page in front of him, he closed his eyes again. The other factions might have a library. But what was the use of a library if no one went in? A few brave souls probably ventured there every so often, braving the wilds of the library to find a prized, and long-hunted book. He chuckled, cracking open his eyes to peer around.

But this library was as empty as the Erudite gym, which was very odd. An Erudite library was never empty, for the faction of the brainiacs always had something to research. But no, only the two of them remained, sticking their noses into a dusty old tome he didn't even care about. Even the librarians were missing.

"Thete, I'm bored, and there's no one here to tick off. Can we go now?" He whined, turning to glance at his best friend. Ha. Best friend. He even didn't have any other friends.

Theta flicked up a hand to hush him, his eyes skimming the page. He patiently waited a moment, tapping his fingers against his book, before reaching over to the older boy. "No!" Theta asserted, grabbing his hand with his free hand. Finally looking up, the brown-haired boy carefully set it back down on the armrest before he curled a hand protectively over his still open book.

"Three more pages till end of chapter. Please?" Theta begged. Giving him his patented puppy-dog eyes (the ones that made his brown eyes go big and round and all adorable like), Theta returned to the book, completely ignoring his best friend. Sighing, he put back his head and stared at the ceiling that he memorized ages ago. A slight scratch on the bronze carving next to the light from where his boomerang (he'd made it himself [with Theta's help] in the wood shop, going by the description in an old book) had hit it as it haphazardly banged through the air. It was lucky they hadn't gotten thrown out that day, or any of the other days they had decided to set off a rocket (Theta's idea) or detonate a fuse (his idea) or set loose a raccoon (during hours-also Theta's idea) or hack the Erudite's leader email- that was an interesting day. They had gotten through reading about two messages marked 'top-secret' (was that supposed to keep them out?) when armed forces arrived, storming into the library like something major had just happened (tracking the signal, he presumed, but they wouldn't tell him) and proceeded to arrest both of them. (Really, they were only twelve. They hadn't even hit puberty yet.)

After scaring the rest of the library patrons to death (it had served Davros right- the fat pig- though poor Ms. Susan, the elderly librarian, nearly had her third [coming a bit close to the real one this time] heart attack that year), they had marched Theta and him off to 'His Majesty', Rassilion (the great and wise leader of Erudite), who had questioned them about what they had read. It wasn't him, of course(he wouldn't want to get his precious, manicured nails dirty)- but the questioner, Bob, had a barely noticeable earpiece on, while the camera in the corner was plain to see. Of course he was watching (when two twelve-year olds hack into one of the highest security rated inboxes in the world, [he supposed, it really wasn't that hard-a ten-year old could do it] you tend to watch them a bit. The armed forces really were unnecessary-no need to give Ms. Susan a heart attack-but he could've of just come himself. They knew he was there.

Theta answered most of the questions in a nonchalant tone, while actually managing to look remotely interested. That's why Theta was the good boy, and not him. Theta actually managed to care, while he just flipped them off and continued walking. (Another story for another day, young padawan.) He was forced to answer some questions eventually (he couldn't let Theta do all the talking, he'd probably agree to let them do community service or something dumb) and then the big cheese himself came down to make them swear not to reveal annnyyyy of the secrets they might of seen. They snarkily promised (Theta simply rolling his eyes at his under-the-breath quips) and then were finally let go- just to be released into the wrath of their families. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, to quote an old saying. They were both scolded severely (though Theta claimed his parents actually went so far as to tell him to 'stay away from that kid'- the nerve of some people!) and the next day were worshiped by the youngsters. It wore off eventually, but it was nice while it lasted. (The questions dug into the plotting time, though.)

"I swear I will hit you with this book if you continue to ignore me," a irritated, familiar voice cut in. "I know you're awake, your breathing patterns are uneven."

"Yep, the day you hit me with a book will be the day," he snarked back, slowly opening his eyes. Seeing Theta standing before him with serious expression on his face made him crack up. When Theta got serious, he wasn't just serious, he was serious.

"What were you dreaming of?" Theta questioned politely, reverting from 'serious Theta' to 'polite, kind and thoughtful Theta'.

"That scratch," he said, pointing. "And of the Email Incident."

"Those have what in common?" Theta asked curiously. At his look, he shook his head and muttered, "Not even going to ask."

"Good." He stood up, dropping his book on top of Theta's on the small table. Stretching, he cautiously asked, "Erudite still?"

Theta turned to him and rolled his eyes. "Yes. Yes, yes and yes. You don't have to keep asking me. I'm not going to change my mind. Well, probably not. Well, very unlikely." He paused. "You?"

He contemplated the options (for the millionth time). All of the other factions were boring and useless (especially Dauntless) and even though Erudite was filled with stuck-up pigs, he might as well live here. Rather here then anywhere else. He and Theta already knew the answers to the test (they had hacked the test a few months ago), so-

"Yes."

"Fantastic. Now, lets go do whatever you wanted to do when you dragged me out of my book about astropsychology physics. It was explaining about how time is more of a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff if you look at it from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, instead of the straight line of progression that most people view it- Koschei!"

...

_Hello! This is my beautiful Whovergent story! _


End file.
